Zalman HD-160 and Accompanying Products

CNPS-9500-LED

Initially, we were planning on saving our first look at the CNPS-9500 CPU cooler for a larger heat sink comparison article, but Zalman insisted that the cooler was a perfect fit for their new case and we were up to the task of boring out this claim.

The CNPS-9500 has been out for a while now, and it's been quite popular among enthusiasts for several reasons. First and foremost, it's performance is exemplary.

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With three discrete copper heat pipes and a relatively small base, the cooler is designed to whisk heat away from the core immediately and carry it around the rest of the unit where the wide fins with even separations can dissipate it efficiently.

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A single 92mm fan forces air between the circularly-arranged fins for maximum effectiveness versus minimum air movement.

The base itself is certainly flat and polished well - trying to take a picture to show any imperfections in the near mirror-like finish proved rather fruitless.

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Mounting equipment is included to mount the heatsink on Intel 478, and LGA-775, and all AMD 64 sockets, and relatively clear intructions make the process easy even compared to some stock heat sink installations.

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The only step that some might consider annoying is the removing of the motherboard for the mounting of the backing plate, but this is to be expected with almost all performance CPU heat sinks, and the fact that the nuts are permanently attached to the plate makes this step much easier than many competing solutions.

As the plate on the back is installed, the top "universal" plate is anchored simultaneously. It is this piece to which the CNPS-9500 actually mounts directly, and because of its 90-degree symmetry, it can be used to hold the cooler in one of four orientations to point the airflow in the most appropriate direction.

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Once the plates are anchored securely and the thermal compound applied, the heat sink assembly is held in place with a single piece of steel, which anchors with only two points, ensuring an even application of pressure between the heat sink and CPU surface.

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